a “personal and team story” written in 1997

(continued from page 28 of Amandala dated Friday, January 22, 2021)

Football nightmares

There were two incidents which will be nightmares to me until the day I die. And if possible I would still take the case before the relevant football bodies to have them corrected, almost twenty-five years later. So strong I believe my position to be, and how just I think my cause.

The first case, I question myself about all the time; should I have done it differently? Perhaps not, since my belief in discipline, authority, unity and organization has not changed. Perhaps it has been strengthened over the past years.

At this point, I would like to share something with you that my good friend, Saira Mahabir, in a totally unrelated matter, faxed to me:-

TEAMWORK IS THE ABILITY TO WORK TOGETHER TOWARD A COMMON VISION; THE ABILITY TO DIRECT INDIVIDUAL ACCOMPLISHMENTS TOWARDS ORGANIZATIONAL OBJECTIVES. IT IS THE FUEL THAT ALLOWS COMMON PEOPLE TO ATTAIN UNCOMMON RESULTS.

1971/72 Competition – “the year that never was”

Because of the lack of playing fields, I made a recommendation that the association play some of the scheduled games at various out-district towns, where there were teams from those towns entered in the competition. Also, we were to use the Army Camp Football Field to hold some Saturday games to make the completion of the football schedule easier. This was in respect of the 1971/1972 Season. All the registered teams accepted to use the out-district fields, but had reservations about the army field. Only three teams accepted and were scheduled to play there – C.A.A., B.E.C., Spurs.

C.A.A. and B.E.C. played their games and had very poor and disturbing reports about the officiating, association representation, and state of affairs in general. The Spurs team wrote to the association two weeks before their scheduled game, indicating these irregularities and advising that if these problems were not corrected, they would play their game under protest.

So said, so done. Previous conditions, irregularities, and contraventions of football association rules were not corrected. Spurs advised the referee that the game was being under protest. Our players did not want to play; their minds and souls and hearts and spirits were not in the game. We were undefeated at that point, and almost certainly were going to be crowned champions. But discipline and organization and rules were my priority, and I told them to play. We would play under protest; and at the worst, if we lost, we would ask that the game be replayed at the regular venue at the MCC Grounds.

We lost terribly; then duly protested the game; and the protest awarded in our favor. The game was to be replayed at a future date at the MCC Grounds. The other teams, out of jealousy – this is the only reason I can attribute to their behavior – advised the Association that they would not respect the Association’s ruling, and would not play the remainder of their schedule. In other words, the season would be discontinued; there would be no more games, no champion. This was going to be a year that never was. This decision was supported by all the city teams (They had the majority vote in the Association) including Finnegan and Landivar. They were too jealous of Spurs, I suppose. We were too young to be champions. This was not supposed to be. It was too bitter a pill for the majority of teams to swallow. And then, I was not running for a popularity contest. I was just calling the shots the way I saw them, and fighting tooth and nail for my players and for my team.
1973/74 Highest Goal Scorer Award

The second part of the nightmare is the Highest Goal Scorer Award; and this refers to the 1973/74 Football Season.

It was the rule that, when a team did not appear or could not field a team to play the scheduled match, obviously, the team at fault would forfeit the match and the two points. But the interesting part is that a pick-up team, made up from other football players and at times from the fans along with members of the team that could not field a team, would play against the team that had made a complete appearance.

In this case, Landivar was to play Islanders from Caye Caulker. Islanders did not field the minimum of seven registered players, and forfeited the match and the two points to Landivar. Then the pick-up side, including some of the Islanders players, played an exhibition game against Landivar. This was done to keep the fans happy, not have them create a riot and demand their money back, instead of just sitting waiting for the feature game of the evening.

Landivar won the exhibition match by a landslide margin, and Angus Vernon scored 8 goals. Neither the score nor the goals should have counted. But in error, an official, not knowing the rules of the game, awarded the goals scored to the team, and the 8 goals scored by Angus to his overall tally. That gave him a total of 17 goals scored versus Spurs’ dangerous and prolific goal scorer, Raymundo “Mundo” Myvette. This error allowed Angus Vernon to be nominated the Top Goal Scorer and given a trophy. This was unfair to Mundo, and illegal and contrary to football rules.

Spurs protested to the Association under the presidency of George Quinto, Jr., also known as “Bali,” “Tan,” or “Tan Jr.” The protest was never heard, and just allowed to remain forgotten; this was over all my protests, and that of other teams and their representatives. What hurt a lot is that George was my very good friend up until he died. His agreeing to run for elections and serve as president of the Football Association was largely, if not solely, due to our friendship. Because I was involved in football, I encouraged and encouraged George to be a part of the sport, until he agreed to serve.

Now, do not get me wrong; I was not expecting a friend to do something for me that was not right. We had all the rules in our favor. I would have hoped that on his own initiative, he would have seen that my protest along with any other protest would have been heard. And justice would have been served in appearance, if not in essence. And of course, George being my friend, I thought that surely if another reason was needed to do his job, our friendship would have been a good reason. Anyway, George, when we meet as eternal friends in the other world, I am sure that we will talk about and settle this matter.

But the protest was not destined to be heard or settled. And the real and deserving Top Goal Scorer of the 1973/74 competition never made it into the record books. So Mundo, my friend, I am sorry that I could not have done more for you.

(to be continued)

(AMANDALA Sports Ed. Note: It is indeed a huge blemish in the record of the then British Honduras Football Association, not to have a champion declared for the 1971/72 season. And the non-hearing of the protest on the obvious illegality in affecting the 1973/74 Top Goal Scorer race is equally appalling. And that is taking nothing away from “Mr. Ball,” the legendary Angus Vernon, who by that time had already racked up a number of awards through his illustrious career. There is still a lot of pettiness occurring in the current squabble for power in Belize football associations, so the prospects are not bright for an end to brother Teddy’s nightmares any time soon. If it is any comfort, in my books, Mundo was the man in 1973/74 season, and Spurs was the team in 1971/72.)